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The scores of replies I received are wide and varied with some very
excellent information.  Thank you to those of you who replied.  My last
urine test showed signs of infection so I am again on an antibiotic which
will probably cause a yeast infection.  A vicious cycle!  Hopefully we will
all get that right one day.  I have had a hysterecomy so no uterus, but do
possibly need to consider hormone balance since I have been through
menopause.

RESPONSES:

found out that I was Celiac and when my intestines are reacting to gluten
they become inflamed and push down on my uterus, which of course pushes
down on my bladder, etc.  The only thing I find that works is strict diet
of no gluten and antiinflamatories when it does act up.

try giving up ALL dairy. That feeling of pressure on the bladder is
sometimes a symptom of those who are intolerant of casein - many celiacs
are also lactose intolerate

have you been checked for diabeties?  it's on the same gene strand.

assume that you have had a plain basic urinalysis.  I think you should go
ahead and get the other testing done too.

My personal experience with similar problems led to some weird answers.  I
get a lot of bladder pain and pressure from eating red apples or drinking
Barnie's coffee.  Very strange, I never heard of anything like that, but
when I cut those two out of my diet, I was in complete relief.

get bouts of frequent urination from time to time.  I have tried the Detrol
LA too, and it doesn't really help.  I've noticed recently that
sometimes the flare-ups come after a gluten ingestion.  If I feel a flare-
up coming on, I try to drink A LOT of cranberry juice (maybe as much as a
gallon in a day) and within a day it stops.  I believe it has to do with a
PH imbalance.

I assume diabetes has already been ruled out?

I had the same symptoms as you last fall.   I was going to the bathroom
about 40 - 60 times a day (I kept a log for him). I went to a Dallas
Urologist and he told me he thought I had Interstitial Cystitis  (CC).
He put me in for day surgery and did a Cystoscopy to check for tumors
and also stretched my urethra.  He found I had CC - there is no cure -
he wanted to put me on Detrol, but I have Fibromyalgia and Arthrisit and
feel I already take too many medications.  He suggested taking Prelief
(over the counter) medication which is prescribed for many things.  He
said I can safely take 40 a day but I only take about 4 - 6 and some
days not any.  It's really helped (as did the Cystoscopy).  My symptoms
have just about completely disappeared.

There is a lot of information on the internet about Cystitis.

I experienced this pressure and urge ONLY when I was on anti-depressant
medicines about seven years ago.  None of them helped the depression, I
ended up trying five medicines in all...ALL of them caused this horrible
pressure and constant urge you describe.

I get like that sometimes when my weight is dropping. It goes
away when my weight is stable or increasing.

 WHAT ARE YOUR LABS SAYING ABOUT YOUR KIDNEYS?

I think I would follow medical advice and get the CT scan and colonoscopy. I
really do not mean this to sound rude, but the people on the list cannot
diagnose you with any certainty. All they can do is guess.

Of course you must rule out all the scary causes with colonoscopy and CT
scan.  If they get ruled out you might look at how much caffeine you take
in.  .  There are several other bladder irritants, I don't know what they
are though.  menopause sometimes increases bladder pressure.  That kind of
pressure can be relieved with hrt, hormone replacement therapy.  Of course
none of this is meant to be medical advice.

Do some reading on Interstitial Cystitis.  It could be a mild case of it.

I don't mean to scare you.  I just thought I should write because I have
had two bladder tumors that I am sure were caused by chronic yeast
problems.  Other than that, I don't know if I had any of the same symptoms
that you described.  My problem was definitely caused by yeast although
none of my doctors would take me seriously.  Luckily, my primary doctor was
willing to let me have 5 doses of diflucan before she did all of the tests
for my other symtpoms which were very numerous and strange.  I also had to
go on a strict diet for candida.  It took me 9 weeks to get better and I'm
still improving after 6 months.

In my case, I have also been taking probiotics for several years.  The
reason I got a systemic yeast problem was because I was consuming hidden
sources of gluten and was in denial.  Now I have to be so strict with my
diet that I have to make most of my food myself!

I have had multiple UTI's that showed a "large" amount of blood in the
urine.  I have been on most anti-biotics, but it seems as soon as I get
off them I get another infection.  I went to a different urologist after
the first one put me on  Elmiron and said the only other thing was to
have med put in the bladder.  It sounded simple, but once I started to
research it, I found that it was very painful and only effective in half
of the patients.  The new urologist said that the blood was not from
infection.  He did a cystoscopy and measured my bladder capacity in his
office.  He then prescribed the Detrol (I hate it) along with Elavil (he
says they don't know why it works but it does).  This routine has worked
for two months, but something new is irritating my bladder - I had more
than 15 trips to the bathroom from 9-1 a.m. this morning.  I know that
carbonated drinks and allergy/decongestant tabs increase the
irritability.  I had reduced the dose of Elavil because it made me so
sleepy -duhh!   He also Rx'd an Estrogen Creme - really messy!

Has your doctor mentioned Interstitial Cystitis (an auto-immune
disease?)

when I went off diary and sugar, one of them removed the frequent
urination and bladder pain completely.  Now I have to go every 3-4 hours
or so.  Because of the possibility of other things causing bladder
pressure, think your idea of a CT scan or ultrasound of your pelvic
region would probably still be a really, really good idea

I am one of those people with chronic vaginal yeast infection, which I don't
seem to be able to eliminate.  I ask every doctor I encounter, no matter
what his/her field.  Although I've been told there is no known connection
with celiac, I'm inclined to wonder.  I also have a lot of bladder pressure
and urinate frequently.  I've often throught that was associated with
pressure from my bowels, which in my case I think it is, and that is in turn
affected by how I digest my food.  (Before I was diagnosed with celiac I did
not have the constant bowel pressure and small bowel movements.)  Sometimes
I have 6 or 8 small bowel movements a day.

I, too, reccomend you go ahead with the CT scan and colonoscopy; why
should you continue to suffer when a proper diagnosis and relief may be
just around the corner.  I recently underwent a colonoscopy for
unrelieved celiac symptoms, inspite of 3 years of careful gf diet, and
was diagnosed with microscopic colonitis.  I am being treated with
asacol and have experienced tremendous improvement.  The prep for the
colonoscopy isn't particularly fun (drinking nasty stuff which caused
cleansing diarrhea), but the procedure is painless.  You fall asleep and
wake up, all done!  As a long-time sufferer of bladder infections, I
think bladder pain is one of the worst discomforts one can experience; I
hope they figure out you problem and fix you up soon. I also suffer from
chronic yeast problems from "one end to the other".  I haven't found any
good probiotics, would you share your brand?

D-Mannose as a remedy for urinary tract, kidney and bladder infections: (I
learned that D-Mannose treats e-coli which my urine culture showed were
norma!)

I had to follow a very basic diet for candidiasis.  I have been dealing
with this for years, so I have my own theories about what worked for me.
The very basic diet was no sugar, alcohol, caffeine, fruit, rice, corn,
potatoes, or dairy. The main things I had to avoid all the time were
alcohol, caffeine, fruit and dairy.  I think a little sugar and yeast
are OK, but most people would not agree.

I am sure I had systemic yeast.  My symptoms included joint pain, back
pain, muscle pain, chest pains and I had myserious lumps in several places
on my body.  They were checked by a specialist who said they were fat
deposits, but now they are monstly gone!  I don't know if yeast is your
problem because it can do alot of strange things.  Anway, I am a lot
better.  I am still struggling with finding things to eat.  It is so hard!
I am strict now.  I also avoid foods with citric acid, canola oil and
annatto.  Maybe you will be lucky and will not have to be that strict.

I went through this prior to becoming GF, which definitely helped.  I also
had a bulging disk in my low back that was contributing to the problem.
After chiropractic treatments for the bulging disk and giving my body
enough time to heal, the urinary problems went away until menopause.  I had
a year-long bout with bacterial vaginosis, a bacterial infection of the
vagina, which caused irritation of the whole area: vagina, urethra,
bladder.  My doctor said that lack of vaginal lubrication due to low
estrogen level (vaginal atrophy) allowed bacteria to embed itself in the
vaginal wall and spread to the bladder and urethra.  A couple rounds of
antibiotics and Diflucan (100mg per day for 4 days instead of the "one-
shot" Diflucan pill) and Monistat finally knocked out the bacterial
infection and the subsequent  yeast infection.  I'm also taking Estrace and
using a progesterone cream to alleviate the vaginal atrophy so the problem
doesn't return.  So there are at least three things to consider:  getting
gluten from an unknown source, low-back problems, and hormonal problems.
Have you had your doctor check to see if your uterus is pressing on your
bladder?  I had fibroids which pressed on my bladder and made it feel as if
I needed to urinate but couldn't.  I had a tipped uterus and had to have a
hysterectomy to fix my problem.  My uterus was stopping the urine and I
required a catheter (ouch!) in order to empty my bladder.  A bit different
from your problem but maybe a clue for you!

Usually, bladder urgency workups are first investigated by urodynamic
studies - not CTs. I can't comment on your case but it does seem that they
have skipped a step. (Failed to mention that my urologist did a cysoctomy
and everything seemed normal.)

I just found out that the culture from my last UTI was Enterococcus, an
antibiotic resistant bacteria.  I have started to research it, but most of
the info is technical and written for medical professionals

Ginger Conner